We knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into… And we knew it would be miserable. The weatherman said the weather would be in the upper 80’s with 90+ percent humidity. However, they say misery  loves company and so when Brian found out Gabe and I were planning to run the 35 miles from Lewes, Delaware to The bottom of Ocean City he was eager to jump on board…. Well until he discovered that we planned to eat a few meals on the way, as we ran, and that the other runners would choose  what you would eat. Then he was less eager…. but nevertheless he was still meeting us. 

Late July on Delmarva is normally hot, humid and muggy. This day would be no different. My alarm went off at 2:15am, yes that is not a typo. I woke up, grabbed my hydration vest, a few energy bars and lots of water and jumped in the car. As I drove towards Ocean City I though about what Gabe had suggested the night before. The conversation went something like this… 

“Hey, Trent… I was thinking of making the run a little more challenging….” 

And this is where I interrupted him, “Gabe, isn’t 35 miles on the beach in the summer with scorching heat and miserable humidity challenging enough?”

“Yeah, but Trent… I thought it would be interesting to add a food element to the run” – Yeah it would be interesting. 

I pulled up to around where the 26th mile of our trip would be. Brian was there waiting and Gabe was on his way. Gabe picked us up at 4am and we drove to Lewes where we dropped off his truck and scrambled  to find where the beach was located. It wasn’t easy with sleep-deprived minds and an eagerness to get running. 

We passed through several beach  campsites before finally making our way to the beach. There was no fanfare and no real excitement to start. We just started running on the sand. We ran maybe a mile or two before seeing the lookout area that connected to Gordon Pond Trail and a glow of red began to appear over the ocean. The sun was slowing coming up, but we still had a good hour of darkness to run in as we entered Gordon Pond Trail.

Gordon Pond Trail is part of both of the Marathons in the Lewes/Rehoboth area and it is one of the most beautiful places to run on Delmarva. There are lots of wildlife, beautiful vistas and a soft crushed gravel to run on. The trail took us very close to The Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk. 

The boardwalk was already the fourth different terrain we had run on in just a matter of a few hours. It was now light and there were people jogging, riding their bikes and walking their dogs. We did what seemed natural as we ran, we kicked a small ball back and forth for a few miles and threw on random articles of clothing people left on the beach. We then went back on the sand and headed south towards Dewey Beach. There were roads in between but we stuck mostly to the sand and by the time we arrived at Dewey Beach we had run 8.5 miles and we were ready for a food challenge. Since it was Gabe’s idea, he went first in choosing what we would eat. And what did he choose?

Scrapple Sandwiches. 

Yeah with 8.5 miles in with 26.5 miles to go we stopped at Sharky’s Grill and ordered three scrapple sandwiches and began to eat. I failed to mention to both Brian and Gabe that I hate Scrapple. I find it disgusting. It took me forever to eat the sandwich, opting to eat half of it as I ran. 

That half a sandwich I consumed Running went down slow and bad. Heavy. My stomach was churning. I was sweating like crazy. The heat was intense and unrelentless. There was absolutely no shade as we headed south on coastal highway. Three miles post-scrapple and my stomach gave out on me. It could no longer handle the sandwich. I hurled. I hurled hard. Gabe and Brian were more concerned they missed a video opportunity than they were with my state of being. To their surprise and excitement I hurled two more times and they were able to capture the third time on video. It was gnarly and they loved it. That video must never see the light of day. 

But… I had a clean slate. And we ran on. We filled up our hydration vests at every opportunity, but the ice melted fast in the heat. The ice melting against our backs felt good on the body until the water was too warm to drink comfortably. 

We cross over the Indian River Inlet Bridge, which ended up being the only elevation gain of our run, and decided this would be a good place to use the public restrooms. By this time we were all 100% soaked from sweating and so we cooled off with the hoses and sinks at the bathhouses. 

Mile 20. It was now Brian’s choice to pick something to eat. He picked his favorite beach donut location, Griff’s Bethany Beach Bake Shoppe in Bethany Beach, which happens to have the heaviest donuts I’ve had in my life. A blueberry and a sprinkle donut were chosen for me to eat. That was a struggle. These were not light soft donuts they were thick and heavy and I am sure on a normal day they are delicious. The first one I was able to eat fairly quickly, but the second I took on the road with me. It would take two more miles to finish it. Two slow miles. 

With the donuts behind us we went into autopilot running. There is often a quiet time in a long run where everyone is just focused or numb from the miles. From miles 20 to 26 we pushed through the heat and the sin that was now shinning brightly down on us. We talked about what runners talk about on runs… more runs. 

Mile 26. We were back at our cars, but Gabe and I were not stopping. Brian had a family commitment to attend to and could venture on with us. However, I did ask him if he was going to run the extra .2 and make it a marathon. His response was classic and something like… “I didn’t come out here to run a marathon”…. and he was off. We still had 50 or 60 blocks to go. 

We crossed back over coastal highway and ran on the sidewalk since by this time it was middle morning and the tourists were taking over the beaches. We stopped again to fill up our hydration packs and down a huge soda. I have never in my life consumed so much water in one day. 

It must have been in the low 90s as we closed on less than five miles to go. My body was getting weak and wasted from the heat, but we continued to talk and laugh and plan further adventures. The mind must be stronger than the body when you hit those dark times of a race. I heard a podcast with an accomplished Ultramarathoner who said that when people really struggle in an ultra endurance they either get angry or upset or they get a little loopy and crazy. We went loopy. 

Hitting the 19th street felt awesome. In the teens! We ventured onto the thrasher-filled, Fisher popcorn-covered boardwalk. We were on the way to the finish. We could smell the barn. I was eager rest, but…

“Hey, Trent. We have one more food challenge and it is your pick.”

“Ah man.”

I was sorta hoping to skip the last food challenge, but I was gonna say a word. I picked The Doughroller since I like their pizza and they usually have slices on the smaller end… or so I thought. We ordered two slices each. “Just cheese, please”

I have never stared down a piece of food so long. I ate about as slow I as I ran at this point. My stomach was thrashed. My legs were drained of energy and my body just wanted to sleep and rest. We each ate one slice, which weren’t small! And got out of there. 

One more mile. Seems easy. Should have been easy, but it was a struggle. We ran on the boardwalk and weaved between people as we raced toward our goal. Somehow the last half of a mile we picked up the legs and went a little faster. We ran past the skeetball games, past the ice cream shops and past the big fake shark. 

We touch the white fence at the end of the boardwalk and looked at our watches… 35 miles exactly. We were done. We could see Assateague Island and we knew The Lewes to Ocean City run was a success. 

The bus ride back to my car was a blur. I was going in and out of sleep as Gabe talked to a few Irish students. He was laughing and talking as if nothing had happened… I bet he could run the entire route again right then. . I drove halfway home pulled over and slept for two hours in a pharmacy parking lot… depleted. 

It was a good run. 

Strava is an excellent place to log your miles and keep track of your progress, but it is also an excellent place to discover crazy ideas. In the early spring I was scrolling through Strava and saw that my buddy Harvey “blacked out” his neighborhood in Colorado. He basically ran every street in his neighborhood one morning logging over a dozen miles. The seed was planted.

The seed started to grow. Demone and I once ran streets in the neighborhoods around Salisbury University on a random Monday before work earning a sticker-less half marathon and then the wheels really started to spin. I thought about blacking out an entire town. My town. Fruitland. 

Mark also lives in Fruitland less than a mile from my house and I causally brought up the idea of running every street in Fruitland. A few days later he surprises me by presenting a master plan to run every single street in our town. He said it would be over fifty miles because many of the roads would be “out and backs”. Wow. I didn’t think Fruitland had that many roads. Little did I know. 

Our goal was to complete the 50+ miles in less than a week. We figured we could do it by breaking the distance into five runs. Mark plan the entire route (or routes) out. He printed out turn by turn directions to make sure every road would be run and we decided on the week to go for it. 

We picked the week of May 23rd and we planned to run Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Wednesday would be our rest day, which worked out well because I was out of town for work that day anyway. The plan was for him to track individual runs in his watch and I would track the entire run on my watch, so would use a feature called “resume later”, which worked out perfectly. 

We decided to make our first run a night run, which didn’t make a lot of sense considering we were running the most dangerous streets of Fruitland during the first run. I believe we both had plans that morning so we ran at night after my kids went to bed around 9pm and finished a little before 11pm. It was a warm evening but I believe the excitement of the run kept up moving at a fairly good speed. 

Day 1: 11.5 miles, 1:43:52, 9’01” pace

Tuesday morning came early. We planned to meet at 5:30 exactly where we ended the day before, which happened to be right by my house. Our legs were a little tired from the run less than 7 hours before. It was a quick easy run. We barely spoke from sleepiness, but we got it done.

Day 2: 8.3 miles, 1:20:56, 9’41” Pace 

After a break on Wednesday we started up again running the parts of Fruitland near Crown Sports’ center on Thursday. Matt Jones joined us and cranked up the speed. He kept us focused on a nice even pace that helped us put a half marathon behind us for the day. It was an easy pace for Mark and Matt, but I was pushing it at the end. It felt great. 

Day 3: 13.1 miles, 1:59:04, 9’05” Pace

How did we end up seeing a drug bust at 5:45am in Fruitland? Not sure, but we did and it happened on the day Melissa joined us. She ran seven and a half miles and although it was another warm morning we were able to fill in another piece of the puzzle. 

Day 4: 7.5 miles, 1:12:09, 9’37” Pace

We must have saved the hottest day for the last day. It was in the mid 70s when we began our last run and it just kept getting hotter reaching the mid 80s when we finished. It didn’t helped that we decided to wear all black to celebrate the achievement. My brother, Jason, surprised me with a visit for the weekend, so he joined us as did Matt Jones and Gabe. We ran in mostly shaded neighborhoods and tried to keep out of the scorching sun, but we were still blazing hot. Our goal was to finish the last day with a half marathon distance. We were able to finish strong even with me lagging behind from the heat and the fatigue. I did muster enough energy at the end to push my brother along in a shopping cart for the last tenth of a mile. Although today was the hottest, it was also the most fun because we were completing our goal and had good friends to finish the last leg with us. 

Day 5: 13.1, 2:07:40, 9’42” Pace

After six days we had run every street in Fruitland. In the total we ran 53.5 miles in eight hours and a little over sixteen minutes and blacked out Fruitland. 

Next blackout…. Salisbury 🙂 

“Bite off more than you can chew, then keep chewing”…Joe De Sena, the creator of The Spartan obstacle races, said this was his mantra and it kept spinning in my head as I looked from The South Rim of The Grand Canyon to The North Rim on Sunday evening April the 24th the day before our quest to run rim to rim to rim. The canyon seemed much larger and much more daunting this time than the two previous visits I had made to The Grand Canyon. My two previous visits I didn’t even take a step into the canyon. Each time I looked both ways and across, took a few pictures, and then drove off. This visit would be different, very different.

This time I planned to run from the south rim to the north rim and back in a day… Covering over 47 miles and climbing over 11k feet.

July of last year my buddy Gabe and I were talking about what could be our next adventure, which is always a scary thought. Months earlier we had run the length of Assateague island, not far from our house, and although it was cold and challenging it was not an adventure that would take months of training, planning and preparation like The Grand Canyon. As we started to toy with the idea of running the canyon, my friend Harvey (Jonathon, but I call him by his last name Harvey since we met as missionaries in Chile) said if we were serious he would want to join us for the run. Around Christmas I received the final thumbs up to plan, train and pay for the run. It was a few weeks after this that I found out my brother Jason had run his first trail marathon. He was becoming a runner and when he heard about my running plans for the year and in particular The Grand Canyon run he wanted to be a part of the adventure. He progressed quickly over the months, following the 50 mile running plan we had set up, and was as prepared as the rest of us when April arrived.

We had two airports to choose from to start our journey. We could have flown to Phoenix or Las Vegas. Las Vegas was a little further from the canyon, but costing considerably less to fly into and the hotels were better, so we picked Las Vegas. Gabe and I flew in Saturday night and Jason picked us up from the airport in his car as Harvey was picking up the rental car. It was already late, since our flight arrived at 9pm, but we couldn’t pass up a run in Las Vegas at night. So we met up with Harvey, quickly brought up our bags and changed and then hit the roads for a quick two mile shake off run.

Jason and Gabe were weaving through people and superheros as we ran down the streets of downtown Las Vegas. We ran close to our hotel, Downtown Grand Las Vegas, and when we finished we went straight to the rooftop pool for ten minutes before it closed for the night. It was ten at night and we were all pretty tired. We made plans for the next morning and went to sleep. When we woke up we had a huge breakfast and then to church. Church was only a ten minute drive from our hotel and it was great to attend church with Harvey again for the first time since our missions in Chile. After church we hit the road for a 4.5 hour drive across part of Nevada and Arizona…. In our Mini Van. Toyota Sienna, Just like at home. 
Our road trip portion was full of stories, laughter and planning. We went over everything we were bringing and not bringing and made sure we were not carrying duplicates of items (like water purifiers). When the long drive was over and we went straight to the canyon and South Kaibab trail to see where we would begin our journey the next morning. The canyon made me nauseous and nervous. It was intimidating and it probably didn’t help that I read the book “Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon”, which relates all the deaths in the recorded history of The Grand Canyon, on the flight from Baltimore to Las Vegas. I made sure no one got anywhere close to the edge. We snapped a few pictures and heard the advice of an overly concerned German man who thought we were headed down into the canyon that night. “Take More Vater!” – He yelled at me. We then drove back to The Canyon Village and our hotel for the next two nights, Maswik Lodge. There is nothing fancy or elegant about Maswik Lodge, but it does have two big beds in each of the rooms and it is located across the street from Bright Angel trailhead, which is where our run that next day should end. We unloaded into our two rooms and set all of our gear out for the next day. How much food should we bring? How much water? A first aid kit? A jacket? Hat? Gloves? These are things we had been asking and planning for months, but we had to ask ourselves one more time and make a final plan. Once we all felt pretty comfortable with our hydration packs and our choice of clothing we headed down to the lodge’s restaurant and ordered some pasta. Spaghetti and meatballs for me and a big bottle of Powerade. I think the Powerade was more of a psychological advantage to me than any actual athletic advantage. The spaghetti on the other hand was pure carb-loading fuel or at least a calorie fuel tank for the next day.

Fueled up on pasta and lots of water we returned to the rooms. We set our alarms for 4am and crashed at around 9pm. I think I woke up four or five time during the night out of excitement. My bed was comfortable and I was tired enough, but I was just fired up and ready to go…. and sleep was getting in the way. One more night of sleep before my dream.

4:00am came quicker than I though. Actually, I woke up 15 minutes earlier on my own and thought while I am up I might as well take a shower to feel extra fresh for the run, as if that would help. More than feeling extra fresh, the shower did wake me up. I threw on a long sleeve tech shirt with a short sleeve tech shirt over it, shorts, injinji socks, Hoka Hoka shoes, a light jacket, a pair of gloves and a hat. I had to make sure I had a place to put the cold weather clothes as the temperature changed throughout the day. We called a taxi and the dispatcher said we had to wait 20-30 minuted for the driver to arrive. So we double checked everything and then said a group prayer asking for safety and weather that would be manageable. We knew we would be asking for too much if we asked for perfect weather. The taxi van arrived and we piled in. We were minutes from the trail at South Kaibab when I said, “This is what it all comes down to… This is what we trained for.” Little did I know that it was near impossible to train to run The Grand Canyon on the pancake flat terrain of Delmarva, where Gabe and I are from. We were prepared mentally, but our legs had never felt the thrashing of quick elevation loss and gain we were about to encounter.

The taxi driver dropped us off at 4:50am right in front of South Kaibab trail. It was pitch black, but it would stay that way for long. We topped off our water bottles, took a picture (that didn’t turn out), and took our first step into the canyon…. Running. My heart was racing as we began our descend. It was steep and it was dark, but we were moving.

Before the “pain party” began we were enjoying the downward steep trail down the canyon. The sky was slowly beginning to lighten up and after only 20 minutes in the canyon we could turn off our headlamps. The canyon was coming alive and we were in runners’ heaven. Every turn presented us with another heavenly view. The canyon was more beautiful than I could ever imagine. The trail was well kept and not too technical, but the degree of the slope was new and somewhat difficult for me. My flatland feet had to get used to this terrain and do so quickly.

After months of worrying about the mule train and how much they would affect our run we quickly realized they were not that big of a deal… And we realized they are faster than we thought and they never stop to take pictures. After two or three miles the mules passed us as we took a quick bathroom break. We took off after them and began gaining ground with a goal to repass them in a mile or two, however our desire to capture pictures of the world around us surpassed any real desire to pass a bunch of… mules.

Three miles into our run we had dropped 2,040 feet in elevation change and were able to stop for a moment at Skeleton Point and see the sun sneak over the north rim. I had never run a far distance with my brother and this was a perfect opportunity to do so. He was strong and determined and his long legs helped him float down the canyon. All four of us were trying to come up with Trail names for each other as we ran. A lot of crazy names came up, but only one suck… for anyone of us. Gabe became Tonto and the rest of us just kinda stayed Trent, Jason and Harvey. Tonto was a great name for Gabe because he had a Mohawk and there is a Tonto Trail on The Grand Canyon.

Between Skeleton Point and Tip Off we ran what I felt were the most runnable switchbacks of the entire day. The running was fun, relatively fast, and very scenic. We kept stopping to soak in the views and then running back and forth down the canyon’s south rim. We took turns at the lead and just ran with reckless joy. The trails had many steps on them which were at times difficult to time well with one’s stride, but we kept moving.

At the beginning of our run the temperature was just under 30 degrees and after 4.5 miles when we arrived at Tip Off we were ready to shed some of our layers of clothing as the temperature was in the mid 4os. The temperature would continue to rise as we ran further and further into the canyon.

With less than a mile to go before Bright Angel Campground, we could see the suspension bridge crossing the Colorado River and see a few camping tents. When we arrived at Bright Angel/Phantom Ranch Station we had run seven miles and had dropped 4,780 feet. We decided to take South Kaibab down at the beginning instead of Bright Angel because South Kaibab doesn’t have water stops available.  South Kaibab trail is also said to have the best view as well, which I tend to agree with 100%.

We arrived at the bottom of the canyon a little over two hours after we began. Phantom Ranch did not open until 8am and we were passing through around 7:20am, which was probably a good thing so we were not tempted to sit and drink lemonade all morning. We did fill up our hydration packs and our water bottles. We made sure to eat a few Cliff Bars and Kind Bars. My hydration pack was filled with water and Tailwind, which is a like a Gatorade-like drink. It is full of electrolytes and other bonk-proofing goodies.

Running on the bottom of the canyon on paper looks flat and easy… It was neither. It was less difficult than climbing or dropping elevation quickly, but for a flatlander like myself there was plenty of climbing even in the canyon. There was also some rain as we move closer to Cottonwood Campground. The temperature at the bottom was near perfect for this time of the year at 68 degrees. We enjoyed the rain and the views of the river as we ran along side it.  We were cool and well hydrated.

Cottonwood was a welcomed stopping point 7.2 miles from Bright Angel campground and right before the 6.8 mile climb up North Kaibab Trail to the north rim. We filled up our hydration vest and ate some chomps and split a few Cliff Bars. We should have eaten even more. I should have eaten more.

The climb up North Kaibab Trail was slow, difficult and exhausting. We were gaining 1,000 feet of elevation each mile. We were not running this, or at least most of it. The terrain was too steep and too technical for us to expend energy trying to run it. Had I tried I would have never had energy to do the return trip. I fueled up on GU before starting the uphill power hike, but I should have consumed more food. Two miles before the top of the North Rim I felt light headed and a little dizzy. Harvey asked if anyone felt this way. He is a dentist and had some great bedside manners with us as we struggled up the canyon. He was genuinely concerned for us and kept reminding us to drink and eat. I think he kept us very well hydrated and well fueled. I was just a little off towards the end of the upward North Kaibab Trail. I fixed that at the top. It was also windy and with mile to go it started snowing on us. The snow was a surprise and the wind was frightening. 

Arriving at the top of The North Rim was an amazing experience. We were tired, hungry, and sore, but more importantly we were ecstatic to accomplish such a feat of endurance and perseverance. However… We knew we were only halfway done. I ate two energy bars and finished off my half full water bottle. We filled up everything and then Gabe approached me and said something like this….”Hey Trent… I’ve been meaning to ask you.. Do you mind if I head down North Kaibab on my own and meet you all at Phantom Ranch?” The guy just wanted to fly down the canyon and I couldn’t hold him back. Jason and Harvey were also fine with the idea and Gabe was off. We rested a few more minutes  and went down the same trail we came up. Following in the footsteps of Tonto. 

The return down North Kaibab was a lot faster and a lot more fun than the uphill painfest we encountered going up. Harvey and I talked about the importance of overcoming obstacles in life and how these type of endurance challenges can prepare us for other difficulties we may face as well as how everyone in our mission is doing now… But… More importantly I was just trying to not fall off the cliffs. I was nervous and yet full of adrenaline. I was certainly less scared than when I began in the morning, but I was still cautious and slowed down when I needed to. These trails were cut from the mountains. They were only a few feet wide and I hugged the mountain a few times.

The return from Pumphouse Ranger Station to Bright Angel Campground covered 8.6 miles of runnable rolling hills. There were times when I thought I was running only to look back and see Jason covering the same distance at the same pace walking with his long legs. We were pushing forward…. some miles quicker than others. We sang Army marching songs that Harvey taught us and even tried to sing a few Spanish church song to keep thinking and keep focused. Harvey told us “Happy face, Happy Race”. Well you can see in the next picture my face is not very happy. We were over 40 miles into our trip and my legs were getting heavier by the minute.

Harvey, Jason and I ran into Phantom Ranch wondering where we would see Gabe. Would he be sitting near a tree? Would he be sleeping on a picnic table? Would he be staring at the river or the mountains? We were very off in our thinking. Gabe was feasting. Gabe arrived well over an hour before us at Phantom Ranch, befriended a few people, and was invited to eat dinner with them. Not just any dinner… a sit down Steak and Potatoes dinner with corn, peas, and a salad. Oh and chocolate cake. The girl in the middle of the picture above somehow was able to get us all some steak and potatoes… and so we ate. We spent more time than we probably should have on our return to Phantom Ranch, but we were enjoying ourselves and meeting some wonderful people. Then after 30-40 minutes, we actually stood up. Ouch. My muscles were stiff. We had 9.5 miles to go and 4,380 feet of elevation to gain. So we had to get moving. We decided before we began that we would go down South Kaibab and up Bright Angel on the south rim. We crossed over The Colorado River for the last time and headed up Bright Angel.

The walking dead. That’s how we felt at the time trekking up Bright Angel. The trail to Indian Garden Campground was not too steep over the 4.5 miles we covered. There were a few mines that Gabe and Harvey explored. By the time we arrived at the campground it was dark and we had to get out of headlamps. It was also getting chilly once again so we pulled out our jackets and our hats. The final climb of five miles was strenuous and sent pain throughout my calves and quads. I had strength still, but every step was painful. We had to mentally support each other as well. Often with humor. We talked. We sang. We moved. It was a push and a pull. We pushed upward and we pulled each forward with words of encouragement. It was dark and we were depleted. The end was near. We felt it.

At last we saw the Bright Angel Trailhead  after numerous switchbacks and false alarms. We left the canyon the same way we entered hours ago. On foot and with high spirits. They say you don’t conquer the canyon the canyon conquers you… and that was true today with us, but we enjoyed every minute of it. Fifty-four miles later and with over 11k feet of elevation gain we were proud to walk back to our hotels knowing we had just completed the rim to rim to rim… and fall instantly to sleep.

Completion.

  
Twenty-four hours later and I feel I am still digesting the donuts. My belly is heavy and I am a bit lightheaded. My legs are a little sore, but it is my stomach, more than anything, that is recovering from yesterday’s endurance challenge. A challenge that makes no sense at all. 

Maybe I shouldn’t take days off from running because it was during a rest day a few weeks ago that I came up with this insane idea. I had a breakfast appointment for work and decided to grab some donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts. Before heading out the door for the day I was curious to see how many Dunkin’ Donuts (DDs) there were in the town of Salisbury. So I pulled up a map and saw four DDs in Salisbury and one in Fruitland… That formed a big circle… And then I thought, “Whoa! My friends and I could probably run between all of these.” So I pulled up mapmyrun.com and made a map and it added up to 25 miles. That doesn’t sound right. We need more. 

We need 26.2, I thought. So, I threw in another mile and change around Salisbury University to make it a full marathon. At first I thought consuming one donut at each stop and one at the end would make for a good challenge, but then a dozen sounded even better. So the challenge was set: Run a marathon and eat at least one donut at each of the six donut stops (the first and the last is the same DD). My goal was an even dozen.

  
Four days before the event there were only four people committed to running the marathon, so we met at the DD near the university, ate a donut, and ran a 10k. It wasn’t too bad and I even ate a second donut and ran two extra miles. I felt heavy and a little bloated. This might be a struggle to do this I thought.  

By Friday night, the day before the marathon, we had seven people committed to run the full marathon and six people committed to running part of the course (meaning between at least two DD stops). DiCarlo Printing made some epic bibs to keep track of the donut consumption and to identify us during the course – Thanks to Joey DiCarlo, this is my favorite bib ever! 

I set out my gear and prepared for the run and the donuts!  

  
 Saturday morning came early as my alarm went off at 4:30am. I wanted to be at the first DD by 5am to meet the runners and hand out the bibs. I arrived as Gabe and Michael were parking. Michael is a local photographer and an avid biker and offered to take pictures of our event. Many of the pictures in this blog were taken by him. If you want an awesome action photographer check out Michael Perry. His pictures turned out beyond epic. 

Runners piled into the DD and by the time we were ready to run we had Gabe, Brian S, Mark, Jay, Jeff, Keith, Brian P, Chris, Melissa, Vanessa, and myself. Cathy was also there picking up her bib and would join us to run a little later. The rain was pouring outside and we had no other choice than to eat and go. 

  
We left at around 5:45 am and we were soaked within the first few minutes. I mean head to toe soaked. The rain was relentless during the first few miles as we passed by the university and made our way towards Riverside Drive. The pace was not too fast, but faster than my comfortable marathon pace. So, I slowed down a bit and kept the lead group within sight. It was warm rain, but it was intense. No crazier way to start a marathon.

A few runners had put the course into their Garmin watches and I had the course memorized, but it was still a little tricky navigating at the start. I tried to put the complicated parts of the route at the beginning, while we were still all relatively close together, so no one would get lost. It was only 3.5 miles from the first DD to the second one in Fruitland. It is inside the Walmart and we all arrived without getting lost, mission accomplished. We had to make this our second stop because it didn’t open until 6am and who wants to start a race so late? 

  
The second stop meant two more donuts for me. As I completed eating the donuts my bib, with the name Toasted Coconut Swanson, had two more donuts marked off. It was nice to throw in my hometown of Fruitland into the marathon even if it was just a sliver. This was a quick stop and of course as we left the sky started to dump water on us. 

  
By mile four Chris, Vanessa and I were in the back of the pack and due to the weather and more importantly their speed we couldn’t see the rest of the group. We knew we would see them again in a few miles at Fratelli’s restaurant where a truck was left to collect our headlamps and jackets. We kept running. Fratelli’s was a welcomed last minute addition by Jay and The Swift brothers. The rain slowed down a little as we unloaded our gear. It was here that we said goodbye to Brian P.,  who had to take off to take family to the airport. 

  
The next DD was not for another six or seven miles so we got into a groove and pushed forward. We ran down Johnson Road and across Gunby… It was then the donuts and the miles began to play tricks with my head.

“Chris! What is a piano doing in the middle of the road?”

“Trent… That is a bridge…”

“Oh yeah. My bad.”

We had a nice conversation with Vanessa about her blog and her new job. The miles flew by and we were impressed with the beauty of the roads we were running. We crossed route 50 and logged our 11th mile as we rolled into our third DD. My stomach was full, but I was up for donut #5 and #6 and knew I had no time to think about it. 

   
 
It was at the third DD that Joey “Trails” DiCarlo arrived to be the pace rabbit for the lead group. He not only donated the bibs, but also brought a boost of energy to the lead group. Cathy brought the same energy and fresh legs to Chris and I. I took the time to mention a possible change in the map, which everyone thankfully rejected and we ran off towards the north end of town. 

As we headed north Chris mentioned how hungry he was for real food and how donuts would not satisfy his hunger… And then it happened. Out of nowhere. Cooper, the trail fairie, arrived bringing gifts of crackers! Salty, perfect crackers. Chris felt better and ready to keep running. It was at about this point when I said to Chris, who wasn’t sure if he was running the entire marathon or not, “I understand if you don’t go all the way, but it would mean a lot to me if you finished this thing with us.” Yes, I guess I am always a salesman. But I wasn’t just selling my idea. This marathon was about running with friends and doing something crazy, fun, challenging and epic. I wanted Chris to finish it all and I knew he would. The guy loves epic. 

We ran the biggest hill of the marathon on the Zion’s road bypass and headed around the mall. 

  
Crossing route 13 was scary and easily the most dangerous part of our run, but it also brought us to DD #4 which was only four miles from the previous one. I was hitting a donut overload, but I had to down two more and that’s all I was focused on. This time, instead of glazed, I went with two sugar donuts for #7 and #8. 

  
 
At this stop Gabe and Jeff finished their 12th donut. How many would they eat was now the question. Again when we left the DD it started to rain again. Yet this time the rain was colder as the temperature dropped into the 40s.  We ran on dirt (mud) roads for a while before running along Naylor Mill road. It was a long, dangerous, traffic-filled road that was ugly and full of holes and mud. I guess that made it more exciting, but also kept us running mostly on the grass along side the road. Michael continued to follow us and capture our adventure with his camera, but beyond that he was also a sight for sore eyes on a course that was nearly empty of spectators.  
 
As we ran along Levin DeShiell road towards Nanticoke I had a sort of spring in my legs and opened it up a bit, if such a thing is possible with me. It was near mile 22 now and I felt alive. I love running long distances and at this point Cathy was a little bit in front of me and Chris was a little bit behind me and I was alone on the road. I loved pounding the pavement. I loved ticking off miles. I loved being exhausted… But I didn’t love having an overly full stomach. A stomach that did not look forward to two more donuts. A stomach that was wondering…. 

“What the heck is going on?!?”

My fastest mile was running toward DD #5 on Nanticoke road. It was the last stop before the finish and we all wanted to stay and we all wanted to go. It was a tough stop, but an awesome one. Just three more miles to go. We took a quick picture with the DD staff, who thought we were crazy, and and I “fueled” up. 

  
I grabbed two old fashion donuts and ate one. I drank a little bit of a Powerade and then took the other donut in hand as we started to run back. The idea originally was to run with the donuts, but the rain made it a better idea to eat them at the DDs and then run. The last part of the route ran through downtown Salisbury.

Downtown Salisbury is beautiful and historical, making it a wonderful place to run. We ran straight down Main Street and past the hospital.

  
I was trying to stay with the lead group this time, but they were just too fast. I stayed steady and ran up Waverly road. It was then that I saw my van with my wife and three kids! They were all cheering me on and I was excited to see them… Excited until my wife slowed down and pulled out a dozen donuts and offered me one. I had to laugh, but I wanted to hurl. Get those away from me. 

 The last mile felt great. I ran strong and was excited to finish, then I realized I still had two more donuts to eat. 

  
  
Completing a marathon with ten donuts in your belly is no small task and eating two more right after is not fun either. Before sitting down I grabbed two more: an old fashion donut and my bib name, a toasted coconut donut. It looks like I saved the best for last. The Toasted Coconut Donut was amazing, just like this day running and eating with friends. A dozen donuts with a dozen friends over a little over two dozen miles. What an adventure!

My dozen donut-eating friends (Melissa, Vanessa, Cathy, Jeff, Gabe, Chris, Brian P., Brian S., Mark, Jay, Keith, and Joey) and I ran a total of 276.6 miles and ate 111 donuts! I consumed 3,400 calories in donuts and burned 4,378 calories running. And in case you are wondering, Gabe and Jeff finished having eaten the most donuts at 14 each. 

And now I just want an apple and a celery stick. 

  
No really… Take them. Sharing is caring, right? A few weeks ago I wrote about a handful of awesome trails within striking distance to my home in The Greater Salisbury Area of Delmarva, but as I drive around I continue to see runners hitting the ashphalt. Runners love the smell of ashphalt in the morning. They love to wake up, walk outside and start clicking off miles. Unfortunately some those miles are ugly, boring or downright dangerous. 

So even though I feel like I am cheating on my beautiful trails, I present to you today in this blog… Trent’s Best of Salisbury and Beyond Running Routes. These routes are chosen because they are safe (limited, if any, traffic and often well lit), interesting (not just block after block of houses), and not too ugly (yes, I avoided the roads around the landfill and in front of the chicken plants). My running club and I have run all these routes numerous times at every conceivable time of the day and night, so take notes and join us on these roads (if we aren’t on the trails) 

1. The Salisbury University 5k Loop (3.1 miles)  

 Best beginner route! We are lucky to have a beautiful university campus in town that includes a tunnel under route 13. The campus is hardly ever crowded and hardly ever empty, which is perfect for a safe, pleasant run. If you run around the campus and under the tunnel you can run over three miles without crossing a major road. To increase miles take Camden Avenue towards downtown for an “out and back” route. 

2. The Salisbury Park/Johnson Road Loop (6.75 miles)  

No other route says “Salisbury” like this beauty. You are able to see the park, the zoo, and some wonderful Delmarva landscape. There are a few busy roads to cross, but mostly the roads are country and quite empty. If you run this early in the morning the sunrise over the fields are breathtaking. There is a nice quant lake by Hinman lane that is often visited by fishermen and if you can catch it on a foggy morning it is a sight to see. Where you start and end this route there is a small hill on both sides of the playground if you want to add in some hill work. Add… Check out one of the best small zoos in the country before or after your run! 

3. Airport Casper (10 miles)  A few of the best dirt roads on Delmarva are found on Fooks road and Twilley’s Bridge road. If you run far enough on Twilley’s Bridge road you will find…. Yes a bridge. This route has two parts: heavy traffic near the airport and almost nonexistent traffic everywhere else. So be careful during the first two miles. The roads can get quite muddy or quite rocky depending on when the country last covered the roads with rocks. Great route on a hot sunny day since the tree cover most of the route. 

4. Pemberton Half (13.1 miles)  This is The Pemberton Running Club’s half marathon route. It is fast, flat and besides the two crossings of Nanticoke road and the stretch along Pemberton drive it is very safe. The country roads are great for getting in a rhythm and completing a nice long run. Continue on to Hebron to make the run longer. Bring lots of water during the summer along this route because there is a few few shaded areas. Make this one fast.

5. Downtown Salisbury (3-6 miles)  This is a route I would recommend during the day. You can add as many miles as you would like by continuing to run the roads in different directions. Although it is downtown, traffic is usually light and there are sidewalks everywhere. Around the courthouse there are small hills and if you want to add a little more hill work go across route 50 to Lemon Hill Road. Run Lemon Hill five or six times and your legs will hate you. You could also run in the parking garage across from the library, but I’d be cautious of running this area after dark. 

6. Toadvine (8 miles)  

Toadvine on a clear night with a full moon is a must run street in Salisbury. This route is close enough to the city, but country enough to make you feel far away. Start on Wayne street and for an extra bonus add the parking garage before or after the loop. The roads have little traffic, but the traffic that does drive this route can drive fast so run off road when needed. An extra treat is the Royal Farms convient store less than a mile from the start to quench your thirst after the run. 

7. Blackwater (7 miles)  

Mark my words… You will never run a more scenic route on Delmarva. NEVER. This screams DELMARVA. This is The Blackwater wildlife loop and it will not short change you in regards to wild life. There is not a bad time of the day to run this, but avoid this during the summer or the bugs will eat you alive. Bring your camera and forget your pace on this run. If you haven’t run this do it now before May and let me know what you think. 

8. Deal Island Bridge (9.5 miles)  

Dawn owns this route. She is one of my Deal Island friends and she will run just the bridge portion of this route over and over and over again. One day I hope to dethrone her by running a half marathon distance back and forth over the bridge. Great hill workout for our area and the marshland surrounding the area is epic to see and experience. You can avoid the greenhead flies during the summer if you stay on the main road AND if you are lucky. If you want to experience the entire Deal Island running experience, sign up for The Skipjack 5k or 10k. There is an even better route out on Deal Island that is currently closed that we called the Riley Roberts loop… If that opens back up I’ll be back to Deal Island weekly (so Dawn and Josie… Can you fix that. Smiles)

9. Assateague (9 miles)

As beach bum growing up I have a biased view of this route and this run. You run over the Verrazano bridge and on to Assateague. The bridge will give you a great view of The entire island as well as Ocean City to the north. Be ready to see tons of wildlife including birds and wild horses. This run is excellent in the summer, winter and everything in between. For a more difficult challenge run the return in the sand near the water. The best time of the day to run this is obvious… Early in the morning to catch the sunrise over the ocean. For a fun challenge, Sign up for the two islands half marathon and run from Assateague to Ocean City, but that is not until April. Until then get out and run this route and don’t be surprised if you run back holding a few treasured shells. 

10. “The Dude” by guest writer Chris Demone, The Master Route Builder of The Dude (4 miles)  

“The Dude” is just a little over 4 miles of pretty neighborhood streets in the Camden district. There are plenty of trees and very little traffic, but there’s not much else remarkable about this route. That is, until you look at the map. Thanks to the unique layout of the streets in the neighborhood, this route ends up looking like a big-headed guy running; thus the name. Park next to Woodcock Playground on Riverside Rd., and start from the corner of Riverside Rd. and South Blvd. The final stretch coming up Riverside Rd. makes for a nice flat-out sprint on a slight uphill grade. The Dude abides…

I’ll see you all on the roads (or trails) of Delmarva! 

A few nights ago I was asked by a friend where she could hike on Delmarva with her family and if there was a website that explained a little about the trails. I started to think and realized that there wasn’t really a “go to” page for running trails around The Greater Salisbury area. I know at this time there are not a lot of trail runners on Delmarva, but that is changing quickly and I hope this blog encourages more people to get out and experience the outdoors especially the trails. I will break this up into two sections: actual, existing trails and potential (hopefully future) trails. I will include websites to the parks, where available, and give my opinion and experience on the trails. Enjoy. 

1. Pemberton

Pemberton Trails

These are the first trails I ever had the pleasure to run on and are also the closest to where my running group meets for training runs. It consists of over 4.5 miles of trails and is just minutes from downtown Salisbury. It is open from sunrise to sunset. The trails are for the most part wide and nontechnical (meaning not many rocks or roots) and parts are covered in soft mulch lending itself to comfortable running conditionals. It does get quite muddy after large rainfalls. It is very beautiful to experience during a sunrise over the Wicomico River and during the fall with the changing of the leaves. Beware of ticks and biting flies during the summer and be mindful of your footing when crossing the foot bridges. It is a great place for families since there are bathrooms and the trails are well marked. It is also a very cool historical site to visit. 

2. The Zoo Trails

How difficult could it be to find a map of the trail right next to The Salisbury Zoo? Obliviously pretty difficult considering I just spend 20 minutes trying to do so. Park at the zoo on the east side and cross the street to the other side parking lot going toward the dog park and that is where you will begin to find the zoo trails. If you only run the zoo side you can get in two miles around the trails. These trails are a lot of fun and will give you the closest thing we can come to when it comes to hills. It is newly marked (Thanks to the mountain biking club in town) and easy to follow. I wouldn’t recommend running this area alone in the dark since it could potentially be dangerous due to roots and the occasional stranger. It more technical than Pemberton and more difficult due to the twists and turns of the trails. If you find a good map of the trails send me the link. 

3. Trap Pond

Trap Pond

Our neighbors to the north in Laurel, Delaware have quite the gem in Trap Pond. Although it is a good twenty to thirty minute drive up to the park, this trail is fast and very safe. The trail is wide and the views of the lake and trails are breathtaking. There are often other hikers, runners and bikers on the trails so be cautious. If you want a real fun adventure try running the horse trails. There is a camp store that sells snacks and Gatorade and in the spring there is an ultra marathon that runs the loop around the park like six times. This is the perfect park to bring the family out of a picnic and a bike ride around the pond. The pond loop is a little over four miles and I was able to do it with my two young sons. 

4. Naylor Mill Trails 

Naylor Mill Trails
Be prepared to get lost. These trails are not marked at all, which I find very appealing. It is fun to get lost. I had to run these trail at least a handful of times before I began to get a feel for where everything connected. The entire system of trails is over five miles long. These are some real singletrack trails. The are some rolling hills and fun mountain biking obstacles to run over or around. The trail is as close to nature as you can get in my opinion in the Salisbury area. It is quiet and secluded in the mornings. On the weekends there are more people since it borders witha number of soccer and baseball fields. For trail running it is the best location in Salisbury due to its beauty, difficulty, and location. There is a big parking lot to use to park in or to do speed work. Be cautious of ticks, chiggers, and bugs in the summer. Also if it is during the daylight be cautious of mountain bikers (This is their baby). We need more locations like Naylor Mill that are free of trail markers and signage and full of amazing trees and trails.  

5. Algonquin Cross Country Trail 

Algonquin Cross Country Trail 

This is fabulous 12.5 mile trail from Snow Hill road to Pocomoke is quick, when not flooded, trail that winds through woods, fields, and roads. It is well marked with makers every 1/10 of a mile. I wrote an entire piece on this last week so I won’t dwell on it, but it is definitely a trail I will revisit often. If you haven’t hiked or ran this trail, do it. 

6. Wicomico Demonstration Forest Trails

Wicomico Demonstration Forest Trails
These are flat and in the middle of nowhere in the forest off of sixty foot road in Parsonsburg. There are no hills, no twists, and no real turns. Wide, not singletracked, and built for horses and humans. Be careful holes in the trails from horseshoes. In the winter it is not unusual to see crosscountry ski tracks or even snowmobile tracks. There are at least six miles of trails in the eight different trials. The dark blue trail I three miles apart from the rest of the trails and I have yet to explore it. The trails are well marked and very safe for families and individuals running or hiking alone. There are maps available at the parking lot. The trails do tend to flood at times and in the summer avoid the long grass since they are full of chiggers. There are lots of fast country roads around theses trails if you want a fun hybrid run. 

———- Potential Trails———

1. Pirate’s Wharf

Pirate’s wharf is a piece of land that Wicomico county owns that would make for a perfect location to blaze trails through the woods and along the Wicomico River. I would love to see at least six miles of trails running through this property. Using this land for anything other than outdoor activities would be a travesty. Let’s push to encourage the county to use this land for trails that can be used for runners, bikers, and hikers. 

This video will tell you all about Pirate’s Wharf 

Pirate’s Wharf Video
2. The green corridor

I’d love to see a trail or greenway between Pemberton Park and Salisbury Park/Salisbury Zoo area

3. Ellis Bay Wildlife

I’d love to see trails running through The Ellis Bay Wildlife management area Nanticoke, Maryland. 

4. Winterplace Extension

There are currently two miles of trails at Winterplace, but frankly they aren’t worth writing about. There are not enough miles and the miles that are there are not spectacular in beauty of difficulty. There is land around Winterplace that could be used for more trails.  We could easily add eight miles of trails in the woods around Beaverdam Creek and Halloway Branch. This could easily be another Pemberton and I look forward to the day it is. 

 
We have beautify trails in this area of Delmarva and the opportunity for more. Let’s get out and enjoy the trails and promote making more of them for ourselves, our families, our friends and our visitors. 

The longest trail on Maryland’s Eastern Shore had eluded me for far too long. It knew it was there and it knew I was anxious to conquer it…. But we never met until this past weekend. The annoyance and potential dangers of ticks, chiggers and mosquitos kept me away during the summer, so when an available Saturday opened up this winter I knew it was game on. I didn’t just want to run the trail, I wanted to run the length of the trail and then run back to the start.

The night before, while watching “The Making of a Murderer”, I packed my Orange Mud hydration vest with three packets of GU, two mini bagels, energy chomps and two bottles filled with water and Tailwind. I was preparing and planning for a self-supported 25 mile run on the soft dirt trails. The trails are fairly new and are relatively unknown. They were created for hikers, bikers and horseback riders, but this weekend the trail runners of Delmarva would own it… Well sorta, when we weren’t lost.

When I arrived at the north trailhead at a little after 5:30 in the morning there were five cars and seven runners waiting for me (Yeah I was late, It took a few extra minutes to scrape the frost off my car). It was an amazing collection of runners including a few guys who had run 50 and 100 mile races. It was a chilly 23 degrees when we began and after two days of rain and snow I thought a colder day would freeze the trail and make for an easier run. I was wrong.

After a quick, dark selfie, thanks to Gabe’s long arms, we were off and running. The proper-speed-pecking order usually doesn’t happen in the first mile or two, so I was lucky to be up front talking with The Swift Brothers Brian and Mark… Who happen to both be quite swift. Really. The conversation was flowing and we were laughing at each other’s running stories. Well… until we began to realize we hadn’t seen a trail marker for a while. Oh boy.

The Algonquin trail is marked every tenth of a mile througout the 12.5 mile trail. You would think after not seeing a trail marker beyond the third one we would turn around after a few tenths of a mile. We ran another mile and a half before deciding to turn around. I have no one to blame but myself considering I was in the front of the pack at this point. We turned around and realized that after only covering 1/3 of a mile of the actual trail we had already added an extra three miles to our trip.

No one was upset. Most were pretty excited that instead of 25 miles we were now going to go beyond a marathon. I was worried more about the time than the distance and the worry would increase in the next few miles….

Mile 2 of the actual trail was covering in water. I mean completely covered. At this point I was behind the actual group with one guy behind me. When I saw the trail buried in water and the majority of the group tiptoeing around the pool of water, I decided it was of no use trying to stay dry.

I saw Gabe on the other side of the water and I plowed through. My feet were soaked to the bone with blistering cold water. As my feet crushed through the thin ice and sank the six or seven inches to the bottom they numbed up… but I kept moving. On the other side all I could think of was moving. Moving. Moving. I had to somehow warm up my Klondike feet. I looked down and saw my shoes were icing over from the water. My feet warmed up pretty quickly until we turned the corner and there was another impossible-to-get-around flooded portion of the trail. Icy cold… Tingling… Numbing… And so much FUN. An adventure. We kept going until about mile 3.5 of the actual trail (6.5ish total).

On a random road that crossed the trail was Jay waiting near his truck. We were 40+ minutes later than he expected, but I am sure he enjoyed waiting around at six in the morning in the middle of the woods. We took a group picture and ventured on….

Melissa was our only female runner and she lead the way with both her speed and her toughness… A  little further down the trail we see Jeff Smith blazing up the trail from the opposite end. He started at the south end at five a.m. and ran to meet us. He must have been clipping off miles at an insane pace because he showed up less than a mile after we met up with Jay. The entire group was together. All ten of us headed south.

The mud, snowy patches and pools of water slowed us down, but the stories and company kept us moving. After about 8 miles in Chris and I began to lose sight of the group. We couldn’t even see Jim’s shoes (Altras with their footprint-looking bottom soles). The other runners were all much faster and we would have exhausted ourselves trying to keep up with their pace. It probably didn’t help that Chris and I ran into this…

We had no clue which way to go. So we went straight and ended up at a road with no further direction or trail markers. We quickly turned around and headed down the “closed” area of the trail. A mile into the closed portion of the trail we realized why it was closed. More swamp running. A half a mile worth of it.

When the swamp ended the muddy road began and there were very few stable places to throw down your feet. Slippery and sloshy we pressed forward until we ran into…. a beautiful, winding single track trail! Wow. The energy level skyrocketed. We were depleted physically, but alive with excitement from the newly found trail.

Fueled by the glorious trails we checked off mile after mile. Mile seven, mile eight, mile nine and mile ten.

Wait. There is Jeff’s car, but where is Jeff? It was mile ten of the trail, but mile 13 or 14 of our adventure. Chris had to get home and the trip down took much longer than expected. There were two more miles south and we had to believe that Jeff and the others were at the end or returning north.

After a mile and a half on the southern most end of the trail we ran into Gabe, Brian, Mark, Melissa, Jay, Jeff and Jim as they headed back north. Jeff was heading back to his car and said he would pick up Chris at the end.

I was in a dilemma. Should I run the 12.5 miles back to the start and be extremely late getting home, go back with Chris or call my wife from the trail and see if an extra hour could be added to my adult recess time? I made the phone call.

Green light! I running back I thought! Solo! I thought. Wow.

Chris and I arrived at the end of the trail and I was able to fill my water bottles. We had time to snap a picture before Jeff arrived. I wanted to sleep, I wanted to rest, I wanted to eat, but more importantly…. I wanted to run the entire trail back to the beginning!

A quick goodbye to Chris and Jeff and I was off.

It was tough. I dug deep. I dug real deep. The puddles were not as exciting running alone and felt more like annoying obstacles than Adventurous challenges. I kept telling myself to just keep moving. I kept saying to just “embrace the suck”.

Ken Chlouber, a Colorado miner and creator of the Leadville Trail 100 mile race once said “Make friends with pain, and you will never be alone.” Pain is a mean friend. Pain and I hung out for a few more hours as I endured and relentlessly carried on. I had plenty of water, enough fuel, and warm gloves and hat, but my legs were hurting. They felt like they were covered in thick metal. Heavy and difficult to move. It was wasn’t thick metal. It was thick mud.

Suddenly, I passed a hunter who had a decoy set up in the middle of the trail. He was trying to hunt crow. I didnt help his cause and he didn’t help mine as I feared hunters the rest of my journey. My orange hat came in handy!

Mini goals moved me forward. Tiny little goals.

“Let me get to the next mile marker,” I’d tell myself or “let’s make it to the muddy road” or “let’s just run until there is another puddle and then I can rest”… But you never truly rest. You kinda lie to yourself. It works. Self deception is a wonderful thing. I lied to myself until three miles to go when I hit a root… a huge root… and I went flying.

I landed on my side on the trail and I suddenly cramped up. The entire left leg cramped up. Okay I screamed a little. Maybe a lot. My leg was shaking. I had to stretch it out and wiggle my toes. Within a minute the cramp was gone – A LONG MINUTE, but then suddenly I had the urge to take a nap. Yes. A nap.

I wanted to sleep on the muddy, cold, stinky trail with 27 miles logged and three to go. I wanted to just sleep. No one would have known. I could have slept for an hour and then woke up and finished the trail. The sleep would have been wonderful. I could have dreamed of delicious hot chocolate and German pancakes…. And a warm bed.

That was a foolish idea. I got up. Told my legs to basically shut up and finished the last three miles.

Not fast.

Not strong.

But I kept going. I didn’t come out to the trail to go on a hike or to fall asleep on the trail. I came out with some good friends to run The Algonquin Trail and that is what we did. In the end my watch showed 29.9 miles on the trail, but more importantly were the memories logged as we spent the morning reaching a goal.

When the trail ended there was no band at the finish line, no finishers’ medals, no ALQ 29.9 stickers, no bananas, no chocolate milk, no beer tents or picture booths…. In fact there was nothing and no one. Just me.

And a smile.

  
I was eating more sweets than a six-year old on Halloween. Who can focus on getting a good time or even running a marathon when at every corner there is an Irish person cheering and handing out gummy bears? A water bottle in one hand and a handful of gummy bears in the other while yelling at the crowds with my brother is how I will remember The Dublin City Marathon. 

There are only four people who care how fast I ran the marathon (and I’m not one of them), so I won’t bore you with speed, pacing, time goals etc. The bottom line: 4:31. This one was different. This one was for fun. We planned it to be an adventure among brothers to see the country and throw in a marathon as a little icing on the cake. And that is what we did. 

When I say run a marathon for fun I mean suffer for fun and leading up to the race it seemed as if suffering would include cold, rainy, windy miserable weather. We woke up early on Monday for the marathon at the house of our Irish friend Claire. She wanted to feed us a proper fry, a breakfast consisting of bacon, sausage, eggs, beans, and a tomato, but we insisted on having a piece of toast with jam and a bottle of Lucozade (The European Gatorade-type drink). We piled in Claire’s car and headed downtown. I traveled over to Ireland with my brothers Travis and Brett. Brett came to run the marathon with me and Travis came to support us and cheer us on. 

Fifteen thousand people flocked into downtown Dublin and we were thankful we did not have to take the train or the bus into the city since we would have surely ended up far from the start. Claire kept us from chaos by dropping us off a block away from the start of the marathon. 

It was chilly and drizzling with rain. We were ready to run an agonizing, depressing rain marathon. The thoughts of the chaffing alone almost brought me to tears. I couldn’t tell my brothers that the thought of a rainy marathon didn’t sound fun so instead I kept thinking of the IronMan champion Macca’s mantra to “Embrace the suck”. However an hour before the marathon the rain began to stop and cool clouds rolled in. The weather became pretty much perfect. 

Travis was long gone by this time and Brett and I were surrounded be strangers, most of which were Europeans in spandex running shorts. It was still chilly and with 30 minutes before the beginning of the race we decided to duck into a cafe and grab a hot chocolate. You would think with over fifteen thousand runner the cafe would be packed, but it wasn’t we sat and sipped on hot chocolate and mentally prepared for the drama ahead.

Then we were off. The first miles we slow because we were weaving between people. Wait let me rephrase that… The entire race was slow because we are…. Well slow. But that didn’t matter. We spent mile after mile yelling at the crowds!

“Come on crowd. You got this! Only four more hours!” 

“Looking good crowd. Looking fresh and ready to tackle more miles”

“Stay focused crowd!”

I wasn’t kidding about the gummy bears. They wear everywhere. What was also interesting was instead of cups of water at water stations mini water bottles were handed out. This helped the tendency to want to stop and drink. We could stay in stride and gooooooo. 

We met a twenty-four year old Irish gal name Caroline around mile three or four and talked with her for miles. We were called loud Americans, which surprised me. We kept asking her where the Irish train since the roads are so narrow and have no shoulder at all. She had no real answer, but maybe it is a secret because the Irish are FAST. 

I started to embrace the suck around mile 22. The marathon wasn’t extremely hilly, but they were rolling hills and my quads began to tighten up and cramp up a little towards the end. Then I literally started laughing at myself and thought “you pay to suffer like this… Get your money’s worth”. It was then that I pressed forward. 

Sometimes you just run. You don’t think. You don’t plan. You don’t come up with a strategy. You just put one foot in front of another. I was alone yet surround by strangers. Brett and I loss sight of each other around the halfway point of the race. I was hoping to see him again, but by mile 24 I was thinking I may not see him until the end. I just kept running. The last few miles looked like The Walking Dead. People were in pain and were showing it. A lot of people were walking, but I kept on pushing forward. 

Mile 25. 

Mile 25 was the highlight. Travis my youngest brother was there cheering me on and yelling at me. He spent the entire day walkin around the entire city of Dublin and catching the sites. In fact he walked over 13 miles before meeting is at the end. He took some picture and told me to keep going. It was awesome to see him and it was just the fuel I need to finish. 

The crowds were wild and with one mile to go I decided to start picking people off. I started to count how many people I passed… 1, 2, 3,….. 10, 11, 12. And then 11, 10, 9… Yeah that wasn’t smart. Most of the people I passed ended up passing me again. I just had to chuckle and think of the finish. I crossed the finish line and was suddenly very cold, hungry and had to use the restroom right away. My legs were wobbly and tired. I need to warm up and get some energy back.

So I did what any Dublin Marathoner would…

I ate some more Gummy Bears. And suddenly I was ready to drive across Ireland with my brothers…. Well after that proper Irish Fry meal at Claire’s house. 

  
For almost four years now people have asked me why I run and for the first six months to a year I was saying, “to lose weight and to get in shape”… But you get a point where you have lost the weight (or most of it) and you are in fairly good shape. However people keep asking, “why do you run?” and “why do you run so much?”. For the record, and I hope my wife reads this,…. I am running less was than before, but the question still comes up and until this past week the answer for the last few years has been “it is just something I do.” That is what I believed. 

Yet that all changed last week. I was running the zoo trails in Salisbury with Chris and I asked him a relatively easy question. I say “easy” because we could have found the answer in seconds with our smart phones, but mine was in the car and his was on an armband that made it less accessable. We didn’t have the answer, which was fine because it didn’t matter. What mattered at that time was enjoying the single track trails and kicking up dirt as we logged mile after mile.

Glowing screens, pop ups, beeps and notifications distract us hour after hour throughout the day. We are continually distracted. We are continually available to be distracted. How often have you tried to read an article online and found yourself clicking on a sidebar or a hyperlink in the article. How often have you been sidetracked by an email or text message…. Off track, less productive, everywhere but nowhere. 

This is not just a modern problem. We can get hyperlinked out of our focus by other things as well like the refrigerator for the late night snack, the door bell ringing with solar power peddlers, or the sound of crazy neighborhood dogs keeping us up at night. Distractions are everywhere and some, like the sound of a baby at night, are good distractions and some, like The Golden Arches that suddenly have the entire family chanting “French fries”, are not so good. We have all had that moment sitting down on a bus or plane ready to enjoy some reading time only to be swept into a one way conversation about how great The Chicago Red Wings are… Distracted. 

The moment. The undistracted moment counts. 

It was that moment running down the mountain biking trails that I realized that the reason I run is to have undistracted moments in the early morning. Moments to reflect when I run alone and moments to connect when I run with others. Some of the best conversations I have in any given week are during a nice long runs. I think my running friends and I have solved most of the world’s problems. We discuss family, work, religion, politics, running, more running, biking, even more running, food and Melissa has even started talking to us about culture. The topics are lively and sometimes controversial, but always fun and entertaining. Want to get to know someone? Go on a few long runs. 

I am not rejecting technology. I still run most long runs with my phone in case there is an emergency on the run or at home, but mostly it is tucked away unseen and unused. I am embracing the need to be undistracted, which is different than running to escape something or running for therapy. I run to be in the moment, to clear my head and to enjoy the beginning of a new day…. But most of all I run to enjoy the company of good friends in person undistracted. 

And now…

Be distracted